Pope Francis on Friday called on Catholics to join him as "pilgrims of hope and peace" and to pray for him.
"I ask everyone to join me as pilgrims of hope and peace: may your hands in prayer continue to support mine," Francis tweeted.
The tweet came on the day Francis embarked on a high-profile pilgrimage to Fatima in central Portugal, a shrine where he plans to make two shepherd children saints.
Pilgrims from around the world are flocking to the Catholic shrine to honour the two shepherd children whose visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago marked one of the church’s most important events of the 20th century.